UPDATE: Sabean, Bochy get two-year extensions

As expected, the Giants have extended the contracts of general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy. The deals go for two seasons with club options for 2012.

More after a noon conference call.

UPDATE: We just got off a conference call with Sabean, Bochy and managing general partner Bill Neukom, who said it was “a special pleasure and a delight” to announce these extensions.”

As we all knew, Neukom approached this with a lawyer’s mindset of setting and reaching objective benchmarks. That the Giants went from 72 wins last year to 88 this year boded extremely well for Sabean and Bochy to return.

“I think I said (in February)I thought we had the best general manager and field manager in baseball. I think they proved it this year with this turnaround. I think they deserve this opportunity to take it to the next level.”

Not much hard news came from this conference call. Sabean and Bochy said they had not formally addressed the status of the coaches, although common sense suggests they have had discussions about it. Bochy said he hopes to address it “sooner rather than later.”

Neukom said he doubts there will be “a single silver-bullet solution” in the free-agent market to address the team’s offense shortcomings, although remember, I reported last month that Neukom said no free agent will be ruled out. That presumably includes a big bopper like Jason Bay.

Neukom said the contracts include incentives, but none that would guarantee the third year of the contract.

Sabean, now the longest-tenured GM in the majors, said of his rehiring, “We knew the importance of this year, and thanks to the hard and consistent work of Bruce and the players and so many individuals behind the scenes, it came to fruition that we went from a second-division team to a contending team, which we needed to do not only to reignite the fire in our own organization, but to make a commitment to the fans that we had a plan and we were going to stick to it and get to the next level.”